The Aboitiz group on Thursday launched a pilot cold storage unit in Mankayan, Benguet called Fresh Depot which aims to help farmers manage their farm produce and optimize crop yield.
The facility is touted as the first-ever physical and digital solutions platform for farmers and their crops who are never far away from post-harvest losses and ruined crop yield.
“Fresh Depot aims to transform the lives of our farmers by offering a platform that optimizes their yield and income while reducing waste, making a significant contribution to our country’s food security,” Aboitiz group president and CEO Sabin Aboitiz said.
“Uplifting the agricultural sector and our farmers is crucial to strengthening our food supply chain and reducing our reliance on imports. We see various opportunities to make an impact in this sector and this is just one of the many projects we’re working on,” he said.
In addition to offering sustainable modular cold storage, Fresh Depot’s next endeavor involves digitizing farmer land and planting practices, their pre-harvest, harvest and market information.
Digitization will allow Fresh Depot to offer advisory services, explore market linkage opportunities and financial inclusion programs, as well as build a database of information that the government can use for their agricultural programs.
This pilot, which will initially run for three to six months, will become a case study for this new type of enterprise, which Aboitiz hopes to scale up across other farm locations in the Philippines if proven viable.
The company said it is working with Mankayan’s Manpat-A Farmers Association for its first pilot site of the cold storage unit. Benguet is home to quality highland crops and thousands of farmers.
Fresh Depot is also collaborating with two international agri-tech players Ecozen Solutions Pvt. Ltd., which is backed by Nuveen global impact fund USA and the EXIM Bank of India, and Cropin Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd. which is backed by Impact Assets Singapore as one of its investors.
Ecozen manufactured the modular hybrid cold storage unit called Ecofrost which is designed with climate-smart deep technology to harness solar energy to power the unit, complete with a proprietary technology for battery-less back-up which, after pre-cooling, will keep the fresh produce market-ready 24/7.
Cropin’s services include farm monitoring and management and an easy-to-use, seamless communications solution connecting farmers, agri-businesses and field officers and helping digitize farm activities.
With presence in 92 countries, the company is known for creating the world’s first industry cloud for agriculture, Cropin Cloud, which helps the agricultural ecosystem make informed decisions that increase farming efficiency, improve productivity, manage risk and environmental changes, and enhance sustainability.
These solutions have been tested and proven effective in other parts of the world, such as India, Kenya, and Nigeria. Fresh Depot’s pilot will allow participant farmers to experience how technology has improved agriculture in other developing countries during the period and help future-proof the industry to make it more resilient to emerging threats and challenges.
Fresh Depot has also been selected by the Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy, a Swiss foundation and Specialized Partner of the United Nations Environment, to participate in a three-month international incubator program.
Fresh Depot was selected along with four other global companies making decentralized solar-powered cooling accessible to farmers on a pay-per-use basis instead of traditional methods.
The Incubator will support Fresh Depot in digitizing inventory management and monitoring the shelf-life of stored crops in real time through an app.
